As the waiter prepared the table for our food after we were done with the drinks and small eats, a momentary flash of steel caught my eye. He was scraping away the crumbs on the table cloth with an elegant little spatula and collecting them in an equally elegant little pan. That's professional, I thought, remembering that the bar-restaurant was rated nowhere near five stars.
It was the same a bit earlier with the taxi driver who took us to where we were headed on the basis of what seemed to be a most inadequate little address. Far from taking us visitors on a wild goose chase with the meter galloping, he seemed unnecessarily apologetic in not being able to locate the place at first go - until we mentioned a locally well-known Udupi "hotel". That place, as I later discovered, served excellent dosa, as good as any available across the south.
For the umpteenth time since my first visit to Mumbai nearly half a century ago, I concluded that there was no city in the country more professional than this hugely congested strip by the Arabian Sea. So it was not a little surprising that such a relatively well-run urban agglomeration - by Indian standards - should be in a tizzy over its future.
A draft development plan seeking to chalk out the trajectory that the city will take over the next 20 years to 2034 had been published and immediately trashed by all and sundry in a rising crescendo of protest till the Maharashtra chief minister had no option but to have it withdrawn and promise a better draft for public discussion.
My initial surprise over the fracas (why take an urban master plan so seriously when they are inevitably breached) gave way to the realisation that, like its congestion, Mumbai manages a level of informed public discourse over urban issues unmatched elsewhere in the country.
Just as everything is big about Mumbai, the development plan was a massive goof-up. It had obliterated historical landmarks, driven a horse and carriage - a road, that is - right through residential societies and provided for construction where none should be allowed. If this was carelessness of a high order (the municipal commissioner tried to pass it off as wrong labelling and typos, and promptly got transferred), what was more serious was that the plan did not address the key issues afflicting the city - the need for affordable housing, open spaces and supporting infrastructure.
The plan has put planners and builders on one side and the citizenry on the other. It has used the legitimate-in-itself concept of allowing differential floor space index (how much can you can build in a given space) along dense transit corridors without quantifying where this will take things in terms of housing and infrastructure.
The planners are right in saying that there is already highly dense living along the transit corridors. So let's allow more of high rise construction to at least put a proper roof over the heads of those who are living in various degrees of informal housing. The point is such space will not be "affordable" and that this exercise will end up increasing, not decreasing, the density of living without there being additional provision for commuting, water and waste disposal.
What is noteworthy is the number of well-informed NGOs who have waded into the technicality of the plan to make their point. Over 25,000 suggestions have been received. Even more uniquely, minority groups like Christians and Muslims, who wish to protect their neighbourhoods and religious spaces, have organised themselves to discuss things and file protests.
There is much irony in the fact that from Paris to Chandigarh, exhibitions and talking shops are right now marking the 50th death anniversary of Le Corbusier, the tallest of the top-down urban planners. Mumbai's development plan, in the best Le Corbusier tradition, forgot the people and planned for the planners' own concepts.
There are important lessons for cities across the country from the Mumbai planning misadventure. Cities need development plans, no matter how much they are compromised over time. If a plan is evolved the right way - by talking to residents - then that planning process itself is an incomparable education for all. Planning by consulting clarifies ideas, options and choices so that by the time such a plan is finalised, all who matter have bought into it.
My best take away from the visit, to attend a family wedding, underlined my key perception of the city. A guest put her cellphone down to greet someone, forgot about it and walked away, only to come back in minutes to find the cellphone gone.
After a fruitless search she went and spoke to the manager of the place who promptly pored over the CCTV footage and identified three known faces at the spot at the time. In a few minutes he called the owner and handed over the recovered cellphone! All in the day's work, said the expression on the manager's face. Only in Mumbai, thought I.
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
